1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a silver halide photographic light-sensitive material and a method for developing the same, and, more particularly, to a silver halide photographic light-sensitive material and a method for developing the same, using a silver halide emulsion having an improved sensitivity/fog ratio and improved storage stability.
2. Description of the Related Art
A silver halide emulsion for use in a silver halide photographic light-sensitive material is generally subjected to chemical sensitization using various types of chemical substances to obtain desired sensitivity, gradation, and the like. Typical examples of the chemical sensitization are sulfur sensitization, selenium sensitization, and noble metal sensitization such as gold sensitization, reduction sensitization, and various combinations thereof.
Recently, strong demands have arisen for high sensitivity, high graininess, and high sharpness in a silver halide photographic light-sensitive material and rapid processing in which, for example, a development speed is increased. For this reason, various improvement in above the sensitization have been done.
Of the above sensitization methods, the selenium sensitization methods are disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,574,944, 1,602,592, 1,623,499, 3,297,446, 3,297,447, 3,320,069, 3,408,196, 3,408,197, 3,442,653, 3,420,670, and 3,591,385, French Patents 2,693,038 and 2,093,209, JP-B-52-34491 ("JP-B-" means Published Examined Japanese Patent Application), JP-B-52-34492, JP-B-53-295, JP-B-57-22090, JP-A-59-180536 ("JP-A-" means Published Unexamined Japanese Patent Application), JP-A-59-185330, JP-A-59-181337, JP-A-59-187338, JP-A-59-192241, JP-A-60-150046, JP-A-60-151637, JP-A-61-246738, British Patents 255,846 and 861,984, and H. E. Spencer et al., "Journal of Photographic Science", Vol. 31, PP. 158 to 169 (1983). In general, the selenium sensitization has a superior sensitizing effect to that of the sulfur sensitization normally executed by those skilled in the art but produces a large amount of fog and tends to cause a low gradation. Although many of the above-mentioned well-known patents have been made to solve the above problems, only unsatisfactory results have been obtained. Therefore, a strong demand has arisen for, in particular, a basic improvement of suppressing fog.
In addition, especially when the gold sensitization is performed together with the sulfur sensitization or the selenium sensitization, fog is increased though a significant increase is obtained in sensitivity at the same time. An increase in fog is particularly large in gold-selenium sensitization compared to gold-sulfur sensitization. For this reason, development of techniques of suppressing fog has been strongly desired.